Night in the Asylum
by Deception's Call
Summary: "Tony overdosed twice in boarding school. He was last seen twenty years ago, with a medical band for a hospital specializing in the insane." In which Steve Rogers wakes up in a world where Tony Stark has been in a mental asylum for almost twenty years. AU.


**Well I've been meaning to do a Dark AU/fic for ages, and I've finally gotten to it! **

**Since it's my first dark fic, please bear with me. My writing's been somewhat on edge so I'm terribly sorry if this is horrendous writing.**

**Anyway, apart from this being my first Dark AU fic, this is also going to be my longest one shot yet. I'm trying to get back into the habit of writing long chapters ever since my hiatus in November to January. Hopefully this will turn out somewhat okay and I hope that it won't disappoint!**

**But enough about me...to the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers (although I wish I did).**

* * *

_Night in the Asylum_

Steve Rogers wakes up in a world with war-ravaged lands, with the blood of warriors staining the soil of the ground, and the air in the smoky sky.

He wakes up with lies being said, fake smiles plastered on people's faces all day, everyday, and the weight of the world resting heavily on his shoulders.

He doesn't like this world.

This world, with abusive and oppressive men and with equally disrespectful and rude women, sours his taste.

He wonders what happened to the days when men were gentlemen, and women were ladies.

He certainly gets the surprise of his life when he's recruited onto the Avengers – _first superhero in the world_ – they said, of course they needed him.

Before the recruitment, SHIELD gives him files of those he served with in the war. It's a painful process, full of joyful memories and sad farewells. Almost all deceased – except for Peggy, but he can't bring himself to disrupt the life she's built already. He hates himself for it.

They also give him another file, _Anthony E. Stark_, it said, and Steve Rogers gets his stomach is a knot when he sees Anthony's face. The chocolate brown eyes, the tousled black hair with slight greying near the temples, the curve of the lips and the set of the jaw.

He screams Howard, but it pains Steve to know that this man is not Howard.

He scans his file, it's nothing out of the ordinary, except the articles said that he mysteriously disappeared after the death of his parents in a car accident, suspected and believed to have either committed suicide or fled the country.

It's not conclusive, and when he searches the web (yes, despite the fact that he's from the 40's, he's not as incompetent as people make him out to be), the results are even more crazy than he expected.

The realistic ones are the kinds that claim he overdosed and went to rehab or that he fled the country to see the world, to get away from everything that reminded him of his parents.

The crazy ones are the type that claim that Anthony was in the car with them, that the accident was set up and he was taken…kidnapped and molded to become the vision of the kidnapper's choice.

Steve's learned from a long, long time ago that anything the media says isn't true, and it's best not to believe it.

But on the helicarrier, he overhears Agent Romanoff talking to Director Fury about something related to weapons, and how they are in desperate need to defend themselves, but simply do not have the advanced technology that is needed to make it.

Then Agent Romanoff says something so terrifying, that Steve can barely keep his composure.

"It's a shame really, if Stark hadn't gone crazy, he'd be such an asset."

Steve knows that he shouldn't pry, really, it's not the most gentlemanly thing to do, but he screws that and lets curiosity get the best of him.

"What actually happened to Anthony?" he asks.

Agent Romanoff stiffens, and she gets a slightly pained look on her face as if she almost feels _sorry _for him.

He hates pity.

She narrows her bright eyes, and Fury gives her a nod of approval before he leaves the room.

She exhales, a long breath trying to prolong the upcoming confession.

"Firstly, no one calls him Anthony, Cap," Steve nods, "and secondly, are you sure you really want to know what happened to him? It's not pretty in the slightest."

But the thing is that Steve Rogers really doesn't give a slightest fuck, because damn it he was in the army, and he's seen things that these agents would only see in pictures, so screw them for thinking that he's so easy to break, because they're wrong and he's seen horrors that none of them ever will.

"I think I deserve to know what happened to the only remaining link of my past, ma'am," he replies as he crosses his arms. Ever the defensive strong leader.

Romanoff puts up her hands in mock defense, but Steve really knows that she's not scared of him.

"Suit yourself," she murmurs.

She sits down on the seat by the conference table, and gestures to the seat opposite her.

As Cap sits down, she begins her story.

"It's no secret that Tony didn't have the best childhood."

It's not what Cap was expecting, and he desperately wants to defend Howard but Agent Romanoff doesn't seem like the type that wants to be interrupted. _But really? _Steve thinks, _Anthony is much better than Tony._

"Howard wasn't…the most attentive father, and Maria cared more about her charity events than her son, so they usually let the maids and their butler take care of Tony.

"As a result, Tony grew up resentful, and according to his private records, he was sent to numerous psychiatrists for his erratic and angry behavior. He was being treated for depression and self-harming, among other things. All of his therapists said that all he needed was for his parents to pay attention to him.

"Howard didn't want the press to know that his son was being treated by psychiatrists, for the sake of public image, and in the end, he just shunned Tony and sent him away to boarding school, so he could be out of the public eye. The press would never find out about his crazy son.

"Of course, that didn't make the situation any better. Tony overdosed twice in his time in boarding school, and had to get his stomach pumped for alcohol poisoning four times. Howard paid the school and the hospital to keep their lips sealed about his son's situation.

"They were on their way to Tony's graduation when the accident happened."

Steve doesn't really know what to say, so he just fiddles with his fingers, ignoring the glint of sunlight hurting his eyes.

"After that Tony just…disappeared. He got the news after he received his diploma and he was last sighted boarding a car with his butler and then…gone. He wasn't seen again.

"That is…until five years later, when the Stark family butler, Jarvis, finally died and Tony was there at the funeral. He didn't look good, at all. Director Fury was there too, because he was a close friend of Howard's, and he noticed something that everyone else missed.

"He saw a medical band for Blue Lake Hospital, which is a mental hospital, specifically for those suffering from mental illnesses.

"It's been almost twenty years, and no one's seen him since. But I bet you, he is still in that hospital."

Steve's not the kind of guy who's rendered speechless easily, but this…this did it. It's hard to see Howard in a new light, and Steve almost resents Agent Romanoff – _Natasha, _for making him question his old friend.

He really doesn't want to, and I mean, he _really_ doesn't want to believe that Howard would do such things to his son.

It pains Steve to think of Anthony, no, _of Tony, _going through that. To feel the resentment and the worthlessness that his family bestowed upon him is not something that Steve wishes on anybody.

He feels guilty, almost, for prying into Stark business, but this is his friend's _son_, and he is going to try his hardest to make sure that he knows he's not alone anymore.

But maybe, Steve thinks, he's doing this more for himself than for Anthony.

* * *

After the battle with the Chitauri, New York is nearly in ruins, and Steve concludes that he really doesn't like this new world.

He's disgusted with the World Security Council, _how dare they send a nuclear weapon loose on a city? _New York is just lucky that the nuke got absorbed by one of those leviathans which held some sort of mind control link to the rest of the Chitauri, which caused them to disband.

There are no morals anymore.

Steve has seen darkness, and he knows how merciless mankind can be.

But still, he keeps his mouth shut because he knows he needs too, and moves on with his life. He keeps his small SHIELD issued Brooklyn apartment, and by luck, stumbles upon his old childhood home. He finds out that a sweet elderly woman named May Parker lives there now with her husband Ben and her nephew Peter.

He finds a lot of himself in Peter, and he can't help but think that he will do a lot of good in the world.

Still, Steve moves on and then a year has passed since he's woken up, then one day he picks up his newspaper and on the front page in bold black capital letters are:

**30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF STARK FAMILY DEATH.**

Then Steve's dropped his coffee mug and is rushing out the door, kicking himself for forgetting his promise that he would visit Anthony before the whole Chitauri mess began.

He goes to SHIELD headquarters on the outskirts of New York, and by chance, bumps into Natasha Romanoff herself.

"Cap," she nods as she steadies herself, "what brings you here?"

Steve gulps, because he can feel her eyes penetrating through his and into his soul.

"I…uh, I just needed to talk to Director Fury about an important matter."

Natasha's green eyes gleam and brighten with a knowing look, and Steve just _knows _that she knows why he's there.

"Bit late there Cap, a year too late."

He sighs, "I know, I just…forgot."

She scans his face, narrows her eyes and gestures for him to follow her down through the hallway.

"Forgetting's dangerous, Cap. Last I heard, Stark O'D just six months ago, almost didn't make it."

Steve tries to hide the grimace in his face from his twisted stomach.

"How do you know this?" he asks.

Natasha shrugs, "Fury was a friend of Howard's, the hospital updates him sometimes when he asks about him."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

They walk in silence for a couple of minutes before Steve breaks the ice again.

"How's Clint doing? And Bruce? Last I heard you guys were monitoring them."

"Clint is fine, he finished therapy three months ago, he's in Paris right now. Bruce is back in India. Thor's in Asgard but you probably already knew that."

"And," Steve hesitates, "and…Phil?"

Steve's not sure, but he thinks he saw Agent Romanoff's lips twist upward a little.

"Phil's fine," she looks up at him, "he asks about you sometimes."

"Oh," Steve says guiltily, "well I've been busy. I'll see him before I leave."

"I'm sure he'd like that."

They stop in front of a door, and Natasha enters a passcode before turning to Steve.

"He should be in there," she flicks her head towards the door, "he's probably already waiting for you."

Steve nods, and turns to walk inside, but Natasha grabs his arm.

Her eyes look sullen.

"I know you want to help Stark, we all do, because believe it or not, he's still the son of one of our founders. Just…just don't get your hopes up, okay?

"Don't try and be a hero, Stark's already too far gone too be saved."

* * *

"So you're telling me that you want to go visit Tony?" Director Nick Fury says.

Steve's sitting down at the conference table, the cold air circulating through the room and making the chair chilly. The one-eyed stare Director Fury is giving him isn't help much either.

"Yes."

Fury raises his eyebrow, "Why?"

Steve tilts his head, much like the action of a confused puppy, and realizes that he's not really sure.

He wants to help Tony, but he's not sure how. And he thinks that maybe, the main reason that he wants to be there for Tony, is because they both don't have anyone in their lives that care for them.

All of Steve's friends and family are dead, and he sure as hell doesn't consider SHIELD as a friend.

Tony…Tony is a different issue altogether. He had everything, except the love and compassion of his parents. Steve had nothing to begin with.

Tony has never been alone, he's been surrounded by people for his entire life, but sometimes that isn't enough.

The worst kind of lonely is the feeling alone even though you're in a room full of people.

"We're both alone, and I think we've both been alone for a long enough time."

Fury blinks, it's not the answer he was suspecting.

He turns and rummages through a file cabinet before turning around and throwing a file onto the table.

"That's the hospital's address and the codename that Tony is under, tell them you were sent by Nicholas Fall, they should let you see him."

Steve nods, his fingers running through the worn edges of the file.

"Now you need to listen to me, Cap, and you need to listen close, Blue Lake Hospital is a secure facility, and Stark is a secure case. He's fucked up and they know it there, so if you trigger anything or cause any trouble, I will personally suspend you from the Avengers."

Steve gulps, nods, and runs out the door.

* * *

"How are you, Phil?"

Coulson smiles, still bedridden after a year. "I'm alright, considering the circumstances."

Steve nods, and shuffles on his feet, "That's," he clears his throat, "that's good. How much longer do you have to stay here?"

Phil shrugs, "Been bedridden for a year, just been out of a coma for a month, I'd say around three more months."

"But you're alright now?"

He nods, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

"That's good."

Phil nods again, and there's an awkward silence.

"So I see you're going to see Stark then?" Phil says.

Steve narrows his eyes in confusion and pulls his jacket closer. "How'd you know?"

Phil gestures to the file in his hands.

"Oh, right," he chuckles nervously, "stupid question."

"No, it's not. I think it's good of you to visit him. Fury checks up on him on the phone, but he never visits. I'm sure he's lonely, he doesn't have anyone."

Steve's lips turn up a little. "Agent Romanoff told me not to try and be a hero."

Phil shrugs, "Yeah, well. Sometimes being a hero doesn't mean doing something, sometimes just being there is enough."

* * *

Steve doesn't sleep that night. His mind is plagued with screaming, with the world on fire and the chill of snow on his skin.

That night, he dreams of Bucky and his failure to save him.

* * *

Blue Lake Hospital is not welcoming. It sits on the back of the mountains on the outskirts of Manhattan, about 100 miles south of the old Stark Mansion.

It's grey and old with the window shutters rotting off. It sits beside a blue lake, the catalyst for its name. Vines are growing on the side of the building, its arms reaching out and wrapping itself around the bars that cover the windows.

It's quiet, and Steve can't help but feel a little unnerved.

He parks his motorcycle in the car park, and walks inside the building.

The inside is nicer, it's clean and spacious. The outside betrays its inward appearance.

He walks up to the receptionist, a middle aged lady with greying brown hair.

"Hello. I'm Steve Rogers, I'm here for Edward Stone. I was sent by Nicholas Fall."

She peers up, her brown eyes tired and worn. Her nametag reads 'Meredith Collins.'

"Alright, Mr. Rogers. I'll send someone to take you to him."

He nods. She talks into the comm.

"I hope you know what you're getting into, Mr. Rogers," she suddenly says.

"Mr. Stark is crazy. He is certifiably insane. And you're the first person to ever visit him. Maybe this will be good for him and maybe it won't be, but please, just try to not screw him up more than he already is."

Steve nods, but his stomach is twisted and he feels nauseous.

A man comes, and he takes him down a brightly lit hallway. They travel through the maze of departments before the man finally stops in front of a door.

"He's in there. Good luck, son," the man pats his shoulder and then leaves.

Steve peers through the door window, and he can see a limp form bundled up in blankets in a fetal position in the far corner of the room. There's a lump of fluffy black hair protruding from the white blankets.

There are papers strewn across the room. Drawings, sketches, what seem to be equations of some sort. Just piles and piles of papers. There's a bed in the corner, unmade. There is no window.

Steve slips the pass card he received from the man. The door makes a noise and unlocks.

When he enters, the bundle of blankets curl more tightly into the corner.

"No, please, no. I've been good! I…I haven't done anything!"

Steve is baffled. "I…um…I'm not with the hospital."

The bundle of blankets stiffen before relaxing. Slowly, a head peers out.

Steve finds himself staring into the face of Anthony Stark himself.

Bright, soulful, intelligent brown eyes bore into him. There's an underling of sadness.

His black hair has been cropped unevenly short, disheveled and tousled in all directions. His facial hair is scruffy, but there's a somewhat neatly trimmed goatee there. His cheeks are sunken, like he hasn't eaten.

Overall, he looks gaunt, like a pale white ghost. Steve still feels Tony's eyes staring into his soul.

"Who are you?"

Steve opens his mouth, but doesn't get to answer.

"Oh wait I know who you are! You're…you're Captain America! You're part of the Avengers!"

Then Tony's pointing at him, bright eyes and smile wide, like a little kid in a candy store.

"I knew you guys were real! They said you weren't, that I was dreaming about the aliens in New York, but you're here and I was right!"

Steve's paralyzed, he doesn't know how to act in this situation. There's such a childish glee in Tony's eyes that it makes Steve wonder what exactly is wrong with him.

"Tony…who told you we weren't real?"

Tony stops, his smile faltering and his eyes turning dark. "The voices in my head."

Then Tony's quiet. He's fidgeting and his eyes are darting back and forth.

"They talk to me everyday, and I see them when I'm sleeping. They tell me things that the doctors say I shouldn't listen to. The doctors say they aren't real, but I know they are!"

Steve approaches with caution, carefully sidestepping the mess on the floor. "What do they tell you?"

Tony shrugs, but his shoulders buckle and he begins to shake. His fingers grasp the blanket tighter and pull it closer to him. "They tell me that I'm worthless, that I'm not worth anything. They call me crazy and useless and that I'll never amount to anything. They call me the devil child."

And Steve sighs, his heart breaking slightly for Howard's son in front of him. He doesn't know what made him like this, and he just can't seem to accept the fact that Howard's neglect could have been the cause.

He crouches and puts his hand on Tony's shoulder. He doesn't lash out, but instead grabs a hold of his hand and squeezes tightly.

"You'll make them go away right, Cap? You're a hero."

And Steve nods because what else can he do, he knows he can't be the hero that Tony wants him to be, but he can be there and maybe, just maybe, that'll be enough.

"Yeah, I'll be your hero."

* * *

He spends the day sitting in Tony's room, sitting with him while he explains each and every single one of his sketches on the pieces of paper scattered across the room. Steve doesn't mind, in fact, he likes listening to Tony talk, he gets this look of joy on his face when he talks about his inventions, as if they are the only thing in the world that are his.

"I would build them, I know how to, but I don't have the equipment."

Steve doesn't either, but he wouldn't mind looking for them or thinking of substitutes if it would help Tony be happier.

It all goes downhill when the man from earlier comes in.

"Tony…it's time for your pills."

"I'm not taking them."

"Tony you have to take them or else you won't get better," the man persists.

Steve can see that Tony is getting flustered, his breathing quickens and his face is turning red.

"I told you I'm not crazy!"

Then Tony is on the opposite side of the room, pinning the man down with his hands around his neck. Steve moves quickly, pulling a screaming Tony off of the man, and pulling him to the farthest corner of the room.

The man is spluttering, heaving for air and Steve can see the beginning of bruises forming around his neck.

"Get me Doctor Salvatore, we need to sedate Stark," he says into his radio comm.

"No!" Steve suddenly finds himself saying, "That's not going to do him any good! It'll just make him resent you more!"

He turns and faces Tony. His eyes are wild and crazy, any trace of the man explaining his inventions is gone.

"Tony, you need to listen to me," he places his hands on his shoulders, "you need to calm down. They aren't going to hurt you, they're just going to give you something to make the voices stop, okay? You want the voices to stop right? Right?"

Tony finally stops screaming.

Steve sighs, and takes the pills from the man he learns as bearing the name Matthew Watson.

* * *

When Steve gets home that night, he's not sure about what to make of the man locked inside of a prison cell.

Yes, he's crazy, but it's the kind of crazy that has stemmed from loneliness and fear. The cure, Steve thinks, is basic friendship.

He'll be his friend.

* * *

Steve returns everyday for the next six months, always bearing gifts of scrap metal and wires that Tony could use to build one of his inventions.

By the end of the first month, Tony has built a robot and he calls him Dummy.

He lashes out and locks himself in the bathroom when the hospital, no – _asylum, _takes it away from him.

Steve learns of Tony's diagnosis a week after he starts visiting him. Schizophrenia, depression, multiple personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder.

He's more messed up than he seems to be.

Over the course of the months that Steve visits Tony, he gets to catch glimpses of his various illnesses.

The first day was schizophrenia, when he told Steve about the voices in his head.

Steve witnesses depression and PTSD when the asylum took Dummy away. Steve managed to get inside and stop Tony from using the razor blade in the bathroom from penetrating his skin.

The asylum doesn't give Tony razors anymore.

He sees Tony's multiple personality disorder about three months after their first meeting, when he walks inside his room and finds Tony hunched in the corner of the room, drawing out plans for a missile.

When he asked him what he was doing, Tony just gave a twisted smile and replied, "I'm not Tony."

And finally, his encounter with bipolar disorder was probably one of the most terrifying yet.

It started when lunch was taken into Tony's room, but Tony refused to eat so Steve tried and convince him too.

It all happened so quickly.

One moment, Steve was just trying to convince Tony to open his mouth, and the next, Tony is screaming and flinging the tray across the room blaming Steve of trying to poison him.

It was the first time that Tony had ever directly tried to harm Steve.

"He's getting worse, and he's not responding to the treatment because he doesn't want to," Doctor Salvatore says one day.

"He's angry and bitter, and he's too messed up to know the difference between what's real and what isn't anymore."

Steve just stares through the window into Tony's room, watching him get restrained by trained doctors and nurses. He's screaming, and there's slight traces of blood splattered on the walls from Tony's outburst.

"He's been here for at least twenty years, why hasn't he gotten any better?" Steve asks.

"Sometimes lost souls can't be saved."

* * *

One day, one his five month mark of visiting, Steve comes into Tony's room and he's not there.

He's instead, in the bathroom, and to Steve's horror, passed out clutching a bloodied razor and a pool of blood growing from his wrists.

He calls the doctors and he's screaming at them. How, how could they let this happen? They took all the razors away from him, how did he get a hold of one?

They don't know, the doctors tell him.

Steve stays by Tony's side in the infirmary until he wakes up.

"You didn't make the voices stop, Cap," Tony whispers.

Steve feels tears pooling in his eyes, and he murmurs an apology to Tony before the broken man in front of him falls asleep once again.

* * *

By the end of the five months, Tony is diagnosed with anorexia.

Steve should have noticed it earlier, the picking of the food, the incident with the food tray.

One day, when Tony just refuses to eat, Steve just breaks.

"Why are you trying to kill yourself?!" he screams.

Tony stops, and stares at Steve. Then he utters what are probably one of the most scary and sober words that Steve has ever heard him say.

"It's the only thing I know how to do."

* * *

On the day marking the six months of Steve's first visit, Steve was met with good news.

"Mr. Rogers, I am pleased to inform you that Mr. Stark's condition is surprisingly getting better."

Steve celebrates with Tony that night. They party with Steve's tales of the Avengers, his tales of the forties, of Peggy, and with Tony's favorite movie that the asylum reluctantly provided him with in reward.

Steve leaves when he sees Tony eat an entire meal without vomiting.

He goes home to Brooklyn that night and sleeps with a smile on his face.

* * *

The next morning, on the day marking the six months and one day since his first visit, he's actually happy to see the old and worn down building on the outskirts of Manhattan.

He parks his motorcycle, like always, walks inside and greets Meredith Collins, like always, but the asylum seems quiet and sullen, more so than usual.

"Morning Mrs. Collins," he chirps.

Meredith jumps in her seat, her eyes crazed until they finally rest on Steve. There's confusion there and sadness, and Steve thinks he can see the traces of dried tears on her cheeks.

"What are you doing here, Steve?" she asks.

Steve furrows his eyebrows, perplexed. "What do you mean? I come here everyday."

"Oh," Meredith breaths, "oh you don't know do you?"

"Know what?"

She bites her lip, eyes downcast and hands trembling.

"Tony's dead, Steve."

And then Steve can't feel his legs, his knees buckle and he falls to the ground, clutching the edge of the desk as support.

"He…he O'D last night, after you left. God I am so sorry," she whispers.

But Steve can't hear her. All he can hear is the laughter and the joy that he felt last night, his final night with Tony Stark. He was fine, god why….he was _fine._

His heart feels numb and his head is pounding, his head hurts and his mind can't comprehend the extent of the issue. He can't be _dead. _He was _fine. He was fine._

He wasn't fine.

"He left this for you," Meredith extends her hand, and puts a piece of paper into Steve's palm.

Steve nods his head, and clutches to the piece of paper in his hand like it's his lifeline, and tries not to think about the empty room at the end of the hall.

He leaves the asylum for the last time.

* * *

When Steve gets home, he realizes for the first time in six months, how much impact Tony has made on his life.

He hasn't felt this lonely ever since he woke up.

He sits down at his study table beside the window, and opens the piece of paper with shaky hands. He recognizes Tony's quick, unruly and sharp handwriting.

_Steve,_

_There are a lot of things in life that I have to apologize for. And as we all know, you especially, that I'm not the type to express sentiment. _

_But you know what? I'm sorry. _

_I'm sorry for lying to you. Yeah, I was getting better, but I think we all knew that I wasn't going to get out of this hell even if I did or not. But that's okay, because I don't think the world is ready for me yet._

_But the world is ready for you, Steve. It's ready for the Avengers and for aliens and for heroes to save the day. But mankind is weird and brash and heartless, and they can't accept one of their own when times get hard. So promise me Steve, that you'll be their hero, that you'll save the day and give the hope to move on and give them hope for a better future for the next generation. God forbid, it's too late for me. _

_You know the first time we met, I asked you to be my hero. Don't think that you failed, because you didn't, honestly. To be honest I have been planning this for a while, but after being in a cell for almost twenty years one yearns for a friend. _

_I never had a friend before you, Steve. And I thank you for giving me that honor, I thank you for giving me your friendship and loyalty. _

_I just wanted a friend before I ended it all. _

_It's not your fault, Steve, it was inevitable. Nothing is your fault so please don't beat yourself up over this. Just remember that you became my hero because you became my friend. _

_I was too far gone down that dark abyss to be saved._

_But don't worry, old friend, I'm happy now. I'm going to be with Jarvis and Mom and Pop. Pop wasn't the kindest Dad but I do miss him, and I'll tell him that you miss him too. _

_But can you promise me one thing, Steve? Just one last thing?_

_Fight for me, okay? Fight for the people of this world and for the Nine Realms and keep them safe? Because if you can spare at least one person from my fate, then that's probably one of the best accomplishments of all. _

_I was a tragedy, Steve. I was a poison with no antidote until I met you. You became my friend and my hero. _

_You made me feel alive again. _

_Remember that you can make a change in a person, that you can save them, no matter who you are. _

_So tell your friends of me, tell them of the man locked away inside a tower, and of the savior that came and slayed the dragon to become his hero._

_Anyone can be a hero, remember that. _

_The voices in my head are telling me to stop writing now, and I'm trying to make them stop. _

_But fight for the world alright, Steve? Fight and never give up. _

_I often used to think, that in a world filled with monsters, what is the worth of a man?_

_The worth of a man is worth more than a thousand suns if they are anyone's hero._

_Slay those dragons, Steve…_

…_and remember._

_From, Tony._

And then Steve closes the piece of paper, tears staining the ink on the page.

There was never a time in his life which Steve had ever felt like this.

But he promises to fight, fight for the world that Tony Stark deserved to live in. He fights for acceptance and justice and he fights for the man who didn't get to live his life.

He fights for the man who counted the most.

But Steve's alright now, because he knows that Tony's happy.

The Avengers go on, and battle with demons and monsters and aliens from other worlds, but they always win because they don't settle for second place.

And for the times when the world seems bleak and all hope is lost, Steve thinks of Tony and of slaying dragons, and then suddenly everything seems alright.

For the times that he almost died but didn't, Steve is sure that Tony was the one keeping him safe.

Tony was never part of the Avengers, but he is their guardian angel.

Steve doesn't think that Tony knows he has a plaque commemorating him at SHIELD headquarters.

It's crazy and some people might even say that it's insane, but that's okay because who cares what they think.

He's alright and the world's protected, and that's all that matters.

Because if they can't protect the Earth, they can be damn well sure they're going to avenge it.

_The End_

* * *

**Ta-daaaa! First Dark AU fic completed with a record number of 16 pages. Yeah, it doesn't sound like much :3**

**Well sorry for the horrendous writing, and I couldn't seem to get the ending right, but when I get my mojo back I'll polish it up and make it better, promise :)**

**The idea was just stuck in my head and I needed to get it out.**

**So yeah, when I'm actually **_**good **_**at writing again I'll edit this to make it better. **

**Anyway, thank you so much for sticking with me through this and thank you for reading!**

**Reviews for the 'Angst-Ridden Soul?'**


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